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An Internet meme, or meme (), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, now primarily through social media platforms. Internet memes manifest in a variety of formats, including , (e.g. ), and other viral content. Key characteristics of memes include their tendency to be parodied, their use of intertextuality, their viral dissemination, and their continual evolution. The term meme was originally introduced by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene to describe the concept of cultural transmission of a singular unit, analogous to biology.
The term Internet meme was coined by Mike Godwin in 1993 in reference to the way memes proliferated through early online communities, including message boards, Usenet groups, and email. The emergence of social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram further diversified memes and accelerated their spread. and surrealist memes are some of the newer genres, with newer formats like short-form videos popularized by platforms like Vine and TikTok. Newer internet memes (specifically those of low quality) are often classified as brain rot.
Memes are now recognized as a significant aspect of Internet culture and are the subject of academic research. They appear across a broad spectrum of contexts, including marketing, economics, finance, politics, social movements, religion, and healthcare. While memes are often viewed as falling under fair use protection, their incorporation of material from pre-existing works can result in copyright disputes.
Two fundamental characteristics of internet memes are creative reproduction and intertextuality. (2026). 9780262317702, MIT Press. ISBN 9780262317702 Creative reproduction refers to the adaptation and transformation of a meme through imitation or parody, either by reproducing the meme in a new context ("mimicry") or by remixing the original material ("remix"). In mimicry, the meme is recreated in a different setting, as seen when different individuals replicate the viral video "Charlie Bit My Finger". Remix, on the other hand, involves technological manipulation, such as altering an image with Adobe Photoshop, while retaining elements of the original meme.
Intertextuality in memes involves the blending of different cultural references or contexts. An example of this is the combination of US politician Mitt Romney's phrase "binders full of women" from the 2012 US presidential debate with a scene from the Korean pop song "Gangnam Style". In this case, the phrase "my binders full of women exploded" is superimposed on a frame from Psy's music video, creating a new meaning by merging political and cultural references from distinct contexts.
Internet memes can also function as within specific online communities, where they convey insider knowledge that may be incomprehensible to outsiders. This fosters a sense of collective identity within the group. Conversely, some memes achieve widespread cultural relevance, being understood and appreciated by broader audiences outside of the originating subculture.
A study by Michele Knobel and Colin Lankshear examined how Richard Dawkins' three characteristics of successful traditional memes—fidelity, fecundity, and longevity—apply to internet memes. It was found that fidelity in the context of internet memes is better described as replicability, as memes are frequently modified through remixing while still maintaining their core message. Fecundity, or the ability of a meme to spread, is promoted by factors such as humor (such as the comically translated video game line "All your base are belong to us"), intertextuality (as in the various pop culture-referencing renditions of the "Star Wars Kid" viral video), and juxtaposition of seemingly incongruous elements (exemplified in the "Bert is Evil" meme). Finally, longevity is essential for a meme's continued circulation and evolution over time. (2026). 9780820495231, Peter Lang Publishing. ISBN 9780820495231
Memes spread virally, in a manner similar to the SIR model (Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered) model used to describe the transmission of diseases. Once a meme has reached a critical number of individuals, its continued spread becomes inevitable. Research by Coscia examined the factors contributing to a meme's propagation and longevity, concluding that while memes compete for attention—often resulting in shorter lifespans—they can also collaborate, enhancing their chances of survival. A meme that experiences an exceptionally high peak in popularity is unlikely to endure unless it is uniquely distinct. Conversely, a meme without such a peak, but that coexists with others, tends to have greater longevity. Paper explained for laymen by In 2013, Dominic Basulto, writing for The Washington Post, argued that the widespread use of memes, particularly by the marketing and advertising industries, has led to a decline in their original cultural value. Once considered valuable cultural artifacts meant to endure, memes now often convey trivial rather than meaningful ideas.
However, before internet memes were considered truly academic, they were initially a colloquial reference to humorous visual communication online in the mid-late 1990s among internet denizens; examples of these early internet memes include the Dancing baby and Hampster Dance. Memes of this time were primarily spread via Internet forum, Usenet groups, and email, and generally lasted for a longer time than modern memes.
As the Internet protocols evolved, so did memes. originated from imageboard website 4chan, becoming the prototype of the "image macro" format (an image overlaid by large text). Other early forms of image-based memes included demotivators (parodized motivational posters), photoshopped images, comics (such as ), and anime fan art, (2026). 9781250189745, St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 9781250189745 sometimes made by doujin circles in various countries. After the release of YouTube in 2005, video-based memes such as Rickrolling and such as "Gangnam Style" and the Harlem shake emerged. The appearance of social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram provided additional mediums for the spread of memes, and the creation of meme-generating websites made their production more accessible.
"Deep-fried" memes refer to those that have been distorted and run through several filters and/or layers of lossy compression. An example of these is the "E" meme, a picture of YouTuber Markiplier photoshopped onto Lord Farquaad from the film Shrek, in turn photoshopped into a scene from businessman Mark Zuckerberg's hearing in Congress and captioned with a lone 'E'. Elizabeth Bruenig of the Washington Post described this as a "digital update to the surreal and absurd genres of art and literature that characterized the tumultuous early 20th century". Many modern memes make use of humorously absurd and even Surrealism themes. Examples of the former include "they did surgery on a grape", a video depicting a Da Vinci Surgical System performing test surgery on a grape, and the "moth meme", a close-up picture of a moth with captions humorously conveying the insect's love of Electric light. Surreal memes incorporate layers of irony to make them unique and nonsensical, often as a means of escapism from mainstream meme culture.
After the success of the application Vine, a format of memes emerged in the form of short videos and scripted sketches. An example is the "What's Nine Plus Ten?" meme, a Vine video depicting a child humorously providing an incorrect answer to a math problem. After the shutdown of Vine in 2017, the de facto replacement became the social network TikTok, which similarly utilizes the short video format. The platform has become immensely popular, and is the source of many genres of internet memes as of the mid 2020s.
In 2022, the term brain rot became used to reflect a shift in how memes, particularly TikTok videos, were being interacted with. The term describes content lacking in quality and meaning, often associated with slang and trends popular among Generation Alpha, such as "Skibidi Toilet", "rizz", "gyatt", "sigma" and "fanum tax". The name comes from the perceived negative psychological and cognitive effects caused by exposure to such content. By 2024, news outlets documented the spread of AI-generated memes on major platforms, noting their growing role in shaping online discourse. In 2025, some TikTok users expressed concern over a "meme drought", which was said to be caused by a cringe culture community known as SlimeTok. The meme drought was also used to criticize AI-inspired Brain rot trends and deliberately meaningless content by Gen Alpha and younger Gen Z, such as 6-7, for being "oversaturated and unfunny". These people called for a "Great Meme Reset" on January 1, 2026, which was the act of returning to "classic" memes from the 2010s such as Nyan cat and Big Chungus.
Use of memes by brands, while often advantageous, has been subject to criticism for seemingly forced, unoriginal, or unfunny usage of memes, which can negatively impact a brand's image. For example, the fast food company Wendy's began a social media-based approach to marketing that was initially met with success (resulting in an almost 50% profit growth that year), but received criticism after sharing a controversial Pepe meme that was negatively perceived by consumers.
Additionally, memes have developed an association with cryptocurrency with the development of Meme coin such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu Coin, and Pepe Coin. Meme cryptocurrencies have suggested comparisons between meme value and monetary markets.
Among the earliest political memes were those arising from the viral Dean scream, an excerpt from a speech delivered by Vermont governor Howard Dean. Over time, Internet memes have become an increasingly important element in political campaigns, as online communities contribute to broader discourse through the use of memes. For example, Ted Cruz's 2016 Republican presidential bid was damaged by a meme that jokingly speculated he was the Zodiac Killer.
Research has shown the use of memes during elections has a role to play in informing the public on political themes. A study explored this in relation to the 2017 UK general election, and concluded that memes acted as a widely shared conduit for basic political information to audiences who would usually not seek it out. They also found that memes may play some role in increasing voter turnout.
Some political campaigns have begun to explicitly taken advantage of the increasing influence of memes; as part of the 2020 US presidential campaign, Michael Bloomberg sponsored a number of Instagram accounts (with over 60 million followers collectively) to post memes related to the Bloomberg campaign. The campaign was faulted for treating memes as a commodity that can be bought.
Beyond their use in elections, Internet memes can become symbols for various political ideologies. A salient example is Pepe the Frog, which has been used as a symbol for the alt-right political movement, as well as for pro-democracy ideologies in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests.
Fair use is a defense under US copyright law which protects work made using other copyrighted works. Section 107 of the 1976 Copyright Act outlines four factors for analysis of fair use:
The first factor implies the secondary use of a copyrighted work should be "transformative" (that is, giving novel meaning or expression to the original work); many memes fulfil this criterion, placing pieces of media in a new context to serve a different purpose to that of the original author. The second factor favors copied works drawing from factual sources, which may be problematic for memes derived from fictional works (such as films). Many of these memes, however, only use small portions of such works (such as still images), favoring an argument of fair use per the third factor. With regards to the fourth factor, most memes are non-commercial in nature and thus would not have adverse effects on the potential market for the copyright work. Given these factors, and the overall reliance of memes on appropriation of other sources, it has been argued that they deserve protection from copyright infringement suits.
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